mn76:16.1 Furthermore, take a certain teacher who has this doctrine and view:
mn76:16.2 ‘There are these seven substances that are not made, not derived, not created, without a creator, barren, steady as a mountain peak, standing firm like a pillar.
mn76:16.3 They don’t move or deteriorate or obstruct each other. They’re unable to cause pleasure, pain, or both pleasure and pain to each other.
mn76:16.4 What seven?
mn76:16.5 The substances of earth, water, fire, air; pleasure, pain, and the soul is the seventh.
mn76:16.6 These seven substances are not made, not derived, not created, without a creator, barren, steady as a mountain peak, standing firm like a pillar.
mn76:16.7 They don’t move or deteriorate or obstruct each other. They’re unable to cause pleasure, pain, or both pleasure and pain to each other.
mn76:16.8 And here there is no one who kills or who makes others kill; no one who learns or who educates others; no one who understands or who helps others understand.
mn76:16.9 If you chop off someone’s head with a sharp sword, you don’t take anyone’s life.
mn76:16.10 The sword simply passes through the gap between the seven substances.
mn76:16.11 There are 1.4 million main wombs, and 6,000, and 600; 500 deeds, and five, and three; deeds and half-deeds; 62 paths of practice, 62 sub-eons, six classes of rebirth, and eight stages in a person’s life; 4,900 Ājīvaka ascetics, 4,900 wanderers, and 4,900 dragon abodes; 2,000 lordships, 3,000 hells, and 36 realms of dusky sky; seven percipient embryos, seven non-percipient embryos, seven knotless embryos, seven gods, seven mental heavens, seven goblins, seven streams, seven castoff incarnations and 700 castoff incarnations, seven downfalls and 700 downfalls, seven dreams and 700 dreams, and 8.4 million great eons—through all of which the foolish and the astute transmigrate before making an end of suffering.
mn76:16.12 And here there is no such thing as this: “By this precept or observance or fervent austerity or spiritual practice I shall force unripened deeds to bear their fruit, or eliminate old deeds by experiencing their results little by little”—for that cannot be.
mn76:16.13 Pleasure and pain are allotted. Transmigration lasts only for a limited period, so there’s no increase or decrease, no getting better or worse.
mn76:16.14 It’s like how, when you toss a ball of string, it rolls away unraveling.
mn76:16.15 In the same way, after transmigrating the foolish and the astute will make an end of suffering.’